Total = 56 Cards, and additional cards are included to track gameplay.

遊び方

Seven Suitors is a “marriage trick” partnership game. Each player gets dealt 14 cards. Players are on teams, with partners sitting opposite each other at the table. After cards are dealt, each player passes one card to each other player (i.e. each player passes three cards).

The goal is to be the first team to capture and “mark off” all seven suits. To mark off a suit, you and/or your partner must capture both 7s in a given suit in the same hand (i.e. not necessarily the same trick). Cards are included to allow each team to track which suits they need to mark off: display these cards at the start of the game, and return them to the box as necessary.

The player with the “1” card will start the game, but he or she need not play that card. The suit of the first card led by the start player becomes the “trump” for the hand.

After a card is led, players must follow suit if possible. If not possible, they can play any card. The highest card of the trump suit will win the trick, but absent a trump, highest card of the suit led wins. In the event both sevens of a suit are played and would win the trick, the first seven played wins. The winner of the trick leads the next trick. All captured sevens are public knowledge and should be kept face up.

Play until one side has marked off all seven suits, which will generally take multiple hands. After a hand is complete, check to see which suits each side has marked off, and also track the total number of marriage tricks won (even if they’ve already been marked off). You can track the total number of marriage tricks won either with the cards returned to the box or with a pen/pencil and paper.

If both teams mark off all seven suits in the same hand, whichever team has won the most married tricks over the course of the game breaks the tie in their favor. If there’s still a tie, play another hand, and the first team to score a marriage trick mid-hand wins.

No-Ties Variant: If you’d rather not track the total number of marriage tricks won, you can instead simply play until the first team marks off all seven suits, even if that happens mid-hand.

Short Variant Rather than having each team attempt to mark off all seven suits, each suit will only be marked off by the first team to capture both 7 cards in the same hand. The first team to mark off four of the seven suits wins the game. You’ll only need one set of tracking cards in this variant.

Seven Suitors: The Special Cards Variant

The Special Card Variant is played using the rules of Seven Suitors, with the following changes.

The four special cards are dealt out with the rest of the cards, so each player receives 15 cards. (You can either shuffle them into the deck, which is recommended, or shuffle them and give one to each player.) Any of these cards can be played at any time on a player’s turn, even if they can otherwise follow suit. If led, the next non-special card played counts as suit led.

The 0. The suit of the card winning this trick becomes trump. If a trump card wins the trick, trump remains the same. If the 14 (or ½ following the 14) wins the trick, there is now no trump. This card cannot itself win a trick.

The ½. This card matches the suit of the preceding card, and is half a rank higher. This card may follow the 14, in which case it will win the trick.

The 7 Thief. The person playing this card may, at the end of the trick, take any one “7” from the trick (if there is one), regardless of who won the trick. This card cannot itself win a trick. (If playing the no-ties variant, it becomes possible in a very rare instance for there to still be a tie. If that happens, the team marking off the higher-tiered suit wins.)

The 14. This card will win the trick in which it is played (unless immediately followed by the ½).

Otherwise, all rules are as stated in Seven Suitors. You can also play this variant with both the No Ties Variant and the Short Variant for Seven Suitors. Because players can play more defensively with these special cards, the game may be longer, so the Short Variant is recommended.